Feeling American

It is easy to forget many of holidays that we celebrate in America when you are over seas. Holidays for the various presidents, Memorial Day, MLK Jr. Day, and even Easter and Thanksgiving have all passed unnoticed by me at one time or another. To be fair, it is really hard to get the necessary ingredients to make traditional holiday foods (Turkey, pumpkin pie mix, etc… and if you do happen to get your hands on them, finding what you need to turn the ingredients into a proper feast (like an oven) can be an even larger pain in the ass. Mexican food has been made the de facto fare for all of the major holidays that I have celebrated with Justin (hey, pass me another Christmas taco, chingaaaado!).
One holiday that I have observed without fail since coming to Japan has been the 4th of July. I think all Americans should spend an extended time away from America so that they can truly appreciate how good we have it back home. It’s easy to list off the areas in which other countries are better than America when you haven’t experienced first hand the areas in which other countries are not. Eating cold fish and natto for breakfast would put most Americans in the right mood to appreciate the good things about our country, especially after having to eat it with some rude bastard blowing smoke in your face (it is the non-smokers who are generally put into the special areas over here, often not the other way around).
Although I can’t celebrate the 4th properly (meaning going out to a bar with Matt, the Fingerhuts, Joe, etc… to go sing some true American karaoke), I think I’ll go out by the Yodogawa river and shoot off some fireworks after I finish work, unless this miserable rain continues. In any case, I will be thinking about how much I really do appreciate being an American through out the day. Happy 4th of July.